As a salaried employee, hours will vary, but the freelance editor must be able to work an aver- age of 20 hours per week. The freelance editor is responsible for recruiting freelance writers, assigning stories to them and editing their work. In addition to his or her freelance duties and the freelance editor will be specifically expected to:
- Write a minimum of 50 inches of copy per term
- Work with freelancers and Emerald staff members to generate story ideas
- Attend news desk story meetings each week and help determine which stories will be assigned to freelancers
- Assign at least 3 stories to freelancers per week
- Keep a list of all freelancers with contact and pertinent information and update as necessary
- Look out for freelancers with potential to join staff, and help train and develop those freelancers
- Coordinate the creation of supplements by generating story ideas, assign stories mainly to freelancers and posting photo tipsheets for those stories
- Fill out budget with photo tips for freelance stories
- Assist freelancers in writing and in improving their work, and edit all freelance work for inac- curacy, bad grammar, poor organization, libel and improper style
- Become extremely familiar with the rules of Associated Press and Emerald style
- Ensure all freelancers finish writing on deadline, 3 p.m. daily
- Coordinate with the graphics department to ensure as many stories as possible have a visual element with them by posting photo and graphic tip sheet
- Organize freelance meetings, as appropriate
- Make sure all freelancers are eligible to work at the Emerald
- Advise the editor in chief on hiring decisions
- Keep regular office hours
- Attend required staff meetings
- Attend week-ahead meetings once a week and budget meetings at 3:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday
- Monitor the news daily to keep abreast of all issues that need to be covered, and see that no pertinent news is missed
- Set individual goals each term to improve journalistic skills, and help others set goals each term to improve their journalistic skills
- Complete other duties as assigned
Direct supervisor: Managing editor